Marble
Solitaire Game

A
jumping game!

Marble
or French Solitaire

There
is much in literature about the history of Marble and Peg
Solitaires. The French engraving of Princess
de Soubise on the left showing her playing the
game, dates from 1697. Legend says that Solitaire
was invented by Pelisson, a French mathematician,
to entertain Louis XIV - known as "Roi Soleil" (Sun
King).

Another
legend says that a misfortunate French nobleman,
while imprisoned in the Bastille, devised the game
using a Fox & Geese Board (the Fox & Geese
Board has been used for a variety of board games
in Northern Europe since the Vikings). There is
doubt about these legends, since Ovide wrote about
the game and described it in his book "Ars
Amatoria". In fact, people in Europe rediscovered
Solitaire around the XIIth century with a game
called "Al-qirq" (the mill, in Arabic),
which later became the game of "Alquerque" .
Mathematicians like Leibniz and Edouard Lucas have
written interesting essays about this humble game.Peg Solitaire is named Solitaire in
French, Solitario alla francese in Italian, Resta
um in Portuguese, Solitär or Solohalma in
German, Solitaris in Lituanian, Samotnik in
Polish, and 孔明棋 in
Chinese...